Hydrating hop heads at LA Beer Week

What an incredible day and venue for the #LABW7 festival Saturday at Exposition Park Los Angeles. Thank you to all who came by and sampled our hop water. It was so gratifying to see the faces of people trying it for the first time. It typically started with an “I am intrigued” and ended with “that’s amazing, it’s so refreshing, not what I expected, can I have some more and finally where can I buy some?”

We had a steady flow of people coming by the booth in the beginning, but mid festival until the end we had line ups of people.  Many who came up said they were told by their friends that they had to go over and try the hop water. Overall the event was confirmation that we are onto something.  It totally boosts my confidence as I work to convince skeptical distributors and retailers that hops can be enjoyed on more occasions than in craft beer.

Cheers!

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

H2OPS and the hop drop logo are trademarks of H2OPS LLC.
 

 

Zero alcohol?

So how can it be that h2ops hop water doesn’t have any alcohol? Well it helps to understand where alcohol comes from.  In beverages, the source of alcohol is from sugars, which are fermented by yeast, which in turn produces alcohol.  Our hop water may be loaded with hops, but there are no fermentable sugars or yeast and therefore no alcohol.

Interestingly, some non-alcoholic (NA) beers start out as alcoholic beers and through a process of high heat, most of the alcohol is removed…along with a lot of the flavor.  After this removal process, there is typically some alcohol remaining. 0.5% is the legal limit to be considered a NA beverage in the US. Despite being below the limit, regulations require a person to be 21 years or older to purchase NA beer. h2ops hop water is not a beer or even a NA beer by any definition. Our unique hop water is simply brewed hops and sparkling water and is an innovative new part of the flavored water category.

Cheers!

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

H2OPS and the hop drop logo are trademarks of H2OPS LLC.
 

Hop water research

So I thought it would be interesting to post some more information on what is hop water and what others are doing with hops in beverages. To update my knowledge, I spent quite a few hours on Google and it seems that “hop water” is a long established generic term for hops and water and is sometimes used for various health reasons. The CVS Pharmacy website for instance discusses generic “hop water” and details studies outside the US on its possible health benefits. The FDA considers hops as generally recognized as safe, but marketable health claims have not yet been substantiated. Personally, I believe our hop water should be enjoyed simply as a refreshing zero alcohol, zero calorie, flavored water.

So what other hop water beverages are out there besides our h2ops?  Not many, but I can report that there are a few entrepreneurial hop flavored, sugar sweetened sodas, tonics and supplements using the generic term hop water. It’s great to see other fellow innovators who share our love of hops. At this point, what sets us  apart is that h2ops is simply brewed hops and water in ready to drink bottles and kegs.

It will be fascinating to see what happens in the years to come to this “hop water” category and what other new and innovative uses for hops are discovered.

Cheers,

Paul Tecker

Founder & Brewer H2OPS™ hop water

H2OPS and the hop drop logo are trademarks of H2OPS LLC.